‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ Director Talks Using Cinema as a Force Against Genocide

As the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza raged with images of unbearable human suffering dominating screens worldwide, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania felt an unshakeable need to do something. An artist facing tumultuous times cannot help but be pulled in. For Hani, as a filmmaker out of the Middle East, the tragedy of Gaza hit particularly close to home. One story out of the horror of Gaza struck a particular chord when the world heard the recording of five-year-old Hind Rajab, whose family was killed by Israeli fire before she managed to phone the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) seeking help. For hours the rescue workers could only try and comfort Rajab as the sound of gunfire and tanks resounded in the distance, working in vain to save the child who would eventually be killed by the invaders’ bullets.

Hania uses the actual recordings of Rajab’s agonizing phone calls in “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a piercing drama set within the PRCS offices in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Omar (Mataz Malhees) is the first volunteer to receive Rajab’s call and his reaction is of immediate horror. Colleagues like Rana (Saja Kilani) also feel the immediate urgency to try and rush rescue services to Rajab, who describes over the phone her relatives lying in pools of blood around her in an entrapping car. But there is a frustrating structure that requires rescue services to follow specific routes, with specific permissions given through arcane intermediaries with the marauding Israeli army. This film thus becomes an important artistic document about a moment in time which embodies all that is terrible of this most cruel of recent conflicts.

The power of Hind’s film was noticed by major industry figures like Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Jonathan Glazer and Alfonso Cuarón, who attached their names as producers and helped “The Voice of Hind Rajab” gain distribution. Along with winning the Grand Jury Prize at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, the film is now a Golden Globes nominee for Best Non-English Language Film and has made the shortlist for the Oscars category of Best International Feature Film. I had the pleasure of speaking with Hania about the making of this vital document.

You made the film as the war in Gaza was still raging and causing major divisions around the world. Where did you get the courage to tell Hind’s story?

This is the reason that made make this film so quickly. Making a movie is never quick but what does it mean to wait for this war to end? When thinking about an end we think about justice and accountability. But that’s not coming. Palestinians have been living this situation for many, many years and there is no justice or accountability. So making this movie is a way to bear witness. My ambition as a filmmaker is that this movie can be part of some change, that it can be a tool for change. When I first heard the voice of Hind Rajab for the first time, I asked myself “what can I do?” I make films, obviously. So, the first thing I did was call her mother to ask for permission and one of the first things she told me was about justice. She wanted justice for her daughter and said this movie could do it. When I heard Hind’s voice it became like an obsession for me. I stopped thinking about doing another project. It wasn’t done out of courage, but out of a need to not be complicit.

Did you always plan to use the actual recordings of Hind Rajab?

Yes. Sometimes you can question your first choices but when they are valid you go with them. My first encounter with Hind was via internet, and everything was in those recordings, every exchange. People were just not listening to them entirely because they would find them online where they’re just scrolling. On the internet it’s not as impactful. That’s why cinema is important. It is still this space where you can tell people to stop and pay attention to this voice. It’s a movie that started with sound. It’s the backbone of the film. You have images in those sounds. The film may be set in one location but with sound you have two.

The action is confined to the Red Crescent offices where the rescue workers are desperately trying to do something. Though the film is always moving, that usually means preparation might have been very meticulous. How did you prepare with this excellent cast to capture that real time realism?

We did some preparation but I can say that in this film they were not acting. Those are their real genuine reactions to the voice of Hind Rajab. The first I thing I did was put them in contact with their respective real characters, with the Red Crescent workers who had shared with me everything about what they did and their frustrations. I also needed them to truly learn their lines because they had to say exactly what the real people had said to Hind. We shot it almost like a documentary. I would sometimes stop and do the normal director’s job of asking for less feeling in a few moments. You could see genuinely affected by the recordings, so it is not performing.

When it comes to the look of the film, did you storyboard the shots to get that documentary look?

No, I had the chance to work with a great cinematographer, Juan Sarmiento, he’s from Colombia and he’s great. We started by thinking about the shots. You start talking and it’s all theory. Once you start shooting it is a different situation. Juan Sarmiento is very good at hand-held work. We thought at the beginning we might need steadicams and other things, but when he started filming he would become one of the characters. He is good at becoming one with the actors. He has such wonderful sensitivity.

It’s great the film has received the support of major industry figures like Joaquin Phoenix and Alfonso Cuarón. Please share about that experience and how it came about.

When we finished editing with my producer, we thought we need to bring this movie out in a niche fashion. It is a small, independent movie with subtitles. A festival would surely love it but it would not reach a wide audience since it doesn’t have any big stars. We needed some big names to support the movie. We know many people in the business so we contacted all the names you see in the credits, hoping for one name to say, “Yes, I will support the movie.” But when they all saw the movie they were all deeply moved by it. We found ourselves with these incredible credits. All of them wanted to support the film.

As an artist, what is it about Gaza that makes it so difficult to be discussed in the west?

We need to talk about the representation of “the other” in cinema, especially Arab and Muslim representation. They are not portrayed in a positive light, Palestinians especially. We don’t want to hear Palestinian stories because 70 years ago there was the Holocaust in Europe and Europe decided to pay for their guilt in Palestine, which at the time was under the British mandate. The British gave something that didn’t belong to them to the Israelis. There is this deep guilt that is not easy to talk about in the west. The first Zionists in Palestine had the slogan, “a land with no people for a people without a land.” In the west they wanted to believe that Palestinians don’t exist. When stories like this confirm their existence, it speaks to old demons.

The future is hard to predict but we do know what is happening with this movie in the present. “The Voice of Hind Rajab” is now nominated for a Golden Globe and made the Oscars shortlist in the International Feature category. How are you celebrating and what can we expect from you next?

A film like this needs all those benchmarks like the Golden Globes to maybe reach audiences beyond those who already care. Especially in the U.S. I have this ambition for it to reach the widest audience possible, which is not easy and very complicated. Before starting this movie I was about to enter pre-production for a film I had been writing for many years and stopped when I heard Hind Rajab’s voice. For me in a time of genocide you cannot tell stories about the “beauty of art” and subjects like that. After finishing “The Voice of Hind Rajab” I went back and shot the other film, which has wrapped. I need to edit it now. That will be my next feature film.

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